‘21 GA PF Jabari Smith (Auburn commit)

#529
#529
auburnnyc94 said:
I have known Bruce personally. He comes across as a used car salesman to some so I get it but he is a legitimately good dude. And his track record of cheating in college hoops pales in comparison to SO many in the profession. In fact, the only time in 25 years he has cheated for competitive advantage was when he lied about a bbq at UT. But for some reason, he wears the scarlet letter because he rubs some people the wrong way.
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I've talked with Bruce twice. He's high energy, hilarious, personable, and has a sense of humor that relates very well to college age males (in the gutter). He reminds me a lot of a guy I know who has those same characteristics. He's highly entertaining to be around. But whatever glitters is gold to him. He sees something he wants, he's going to go after it, and similar to the guy I know, that includes women (aside from his wife). He's a heck of a coach, but I would be shocked if he wasn't skirting the rules. I have no inside knowledge of that outside of what we know went down with Aaron Craft and the Craft family, but abiding by the NCAA rulebook would go against his nature.
 
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#530
#530
auburnnyc94 said:
I understand the average sports fan just likes to take potshots and delight in ignorance without any shade of nuance. But you, in particular, seem to be an extraordinarily average sports fan. Please refute my post with something factual.

Bruce Pearl has never, in 25 years as a head coach, even been accused of or investigated for paying a recruit or shady academics.
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Look I think you're fighting a losing battle here and are fully in denial (many of us were too, trust me). But I have to say, that was a beautifully crafted line you had there. Not sure why but it just read well. Good job.
 
#531
#531
For those who had forgotten about this incident. This goes to show that Bruce when is beat always tries to blow the horn on someone. And it has been coming back to bite him ever since. I loved Pearl when he was here but that time is gone and he is a distant memory. And I hope he gets what is coming to him at Auburn which should be another show cause and this one could be lengthy.

Pearl/Thomas incident (1988–1989)
During the 1988–89 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at Iowa, was at the center of a recruiting scandal involving Illinois. Both Illinois and Iowa were recruiting Deon Thomas, a top high school player from Chicago. Pearl lost this recruiting battle when Thomas committed to Illinois. Thereafter, Pearl called the high school student and recorded a phone conversation with Thomas, which may have been illegal depending on where Pearl originated the call. (Illinois requires prior consent of all participants to monitor or record a phone conversation according to Ill. Rev. Stat. Ch. 38, Sec. 14–2; however, Iowa, where Pearl was coaching at the time, only requires one party's consent to record a phone conversation.) During the conversation, Pearl asked Thomas if he had been offered an SUV and cash by Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins, and Thomas seemed to indicate that he had. Pearl then turned over copies of the tapes to the NCAA, accompanied by a memo describing the events. During the subsequent NCAA investigation, Thomas denied the allegations and said the story was false, that he was agreeing with Pearl only to try to get rid of him. Thomas later passed a polygraph test in which he denied Pearl's accusation of Illinois's offering cash and a car. The NCAA did not find Illinois guilty of any wrongdoing relating to Thomas's recruitment, finding that the purported evidence provided was not "credible, persuasive and of a kind on which reasonably prudent persons rely in the conduct of serious affairs."[3] However, since the investigation uncovered other violations, including Illinois's third major violation in six years, the NCAA cited Illinois with a "lack of institutional control" charge and implemented several recruiting restrictions and a one-year post-season ban.
When Pearl and Collins were both head coaches for four years in the Horizon League, the two men never engaged in the traditional postgame handshake, reportedly due to lingering feelings over the incident. When Thomas was asked about forgiving Pearl in a 2005 interview, he was quoted as saying, "It's hard to forgive a snake."[4] Thomas went on to become the University of Illinois's all-time leading scorer.
 
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#532
#532
BurninOrange said:
For those who had forgotten about this incident. This goes to show that Bruce when is beat always tries to blow the horn on someone. And it has been coming back to bite him ever since. I loved Pearl when he was here but that time is gone and he is a distant memory. And I hope he gets what is coming to him at Auburn which should be another show cause and this one could be lengthy.

Pearl/Thomas incident (1988–1989)
During the 1988–89 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at Iowa, was at the center of a recruiting scandal involving Illinois. Both Illinois and Iowa were recruiting Deon Thomas, a top high school player from Chicago. Pearl lost this recruiting battle when Thomas committed to Illinois. Thereafter, Pearl called the high school student and recorded a phone conversation with Thomas, which may have been illegal depending on where Pearl originated the call. (Illinois requires prior consent of all participants to monitor or record a phone conversation according to Ill. Rev. Stat. Ch. 38, Sec. 14–2; however, Iowa, where Pearl was coaching at the time, only requires one party's consent to record a phone conversation.) During the conversation, Pearl asked Thomas if he had been offered an SUV and cash by Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins, and Thomas seemed to indicate that he had. Pearl then turned over copies of the tapes to the NCAA, accompanied by a memo describing the events. During the subsequent NCAA investigation, Thomas denied the allegations and said the story was false, that he was agreeing with Pearl only to try to get rid of him. Thomas later passed a polygraph test in which he denied Pearl's accusation of Illinois's offering cash and a car. The NCAA did not find Illinois guilty of any wrongdoing relating to Thomas's recruitment, finding that the purported evidence provided was not "credible, persuasive and of a kind on which reasonably prudent persons rely in the conduct of serious affairs."[3] However, since the investigation uncovered other violations, including Illinois's third major violation in six years, the NCAA cited Illinois with a "lack of institutional control" charge and implemented several recruiting restrictions and a one-year post-season ban.
When Pearl and Collins were both head coaches for four years in the Horizon League, the two men never engaged in the traditional postgame handshake, reportedly due to lingering feelings over the incident. When Thomas was asked about forgiving Pearl in a 2005 interview, he was quoted as saying, "It's hard to forgive a snake."[4] Thomas went on to become the University of Illinois's all-time leading scorer.
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I have a hard time digging up this incident because we as Tennessee fans overlooked it, as well, when he was our coach. We, like AU fans now, only wanted to see the good. The guy is engaging, capable of playing both the victor and the victim depending on the audience, and has a generally likeable personality.

The fact is, though, controversy has followed him at every stop, and no one in the coaching profession is going to go to bat for him because of that Thomas incident. He burned so many bridges by doing what he did there.
 
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#536
#536
Basically, Cooper's dad (Omar) became an agent this past year. The second I saw that he was starting an agency I was worried something like this might happen.

Omar's agency linked up with Lil Wayne's sports agency biz.

The NCAA has taken up an interest in the Cooper family.
 
#537
#537
Wish we would just start in Feb. May have a better shot to get a whole season in, and may have less cancellations. I wouldn’t mind a “Summer Madness”


Edit: Oops, wrong thread
 
#540
#540
auburnnyc94 said:
Bruce hasn't cheated at Auburn. Shocking.
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ostrich-head-in-sand.jpg
 
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#541
#541
auburnnyc94 said:
Still waiting on anyone to tie down this Chuck Person debacle on Pearl.

Do you understand what happened or not?
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I’ll take a shot at this. Maybe Pearl didn’t have anything to do with what Person did and is a victim like the rest of the bball program. Let’s ignore that for a minute. The Bbq incident was less about the bbq then all the lying he did and asked others to do to cover it up. It is about how he threw assistant coaches under the bus and asked players and re riots to lie for him. Maybe you think this was a one time occurrence and he just happened to get caught. It is your right to believe that. Most don’t. The incident with the recruit in Iowa and Illinois is another example of his integrity and character in my opinion. Maybe you can ignore it and say recruiting us a dirty business. That is your right. I think it tells us a little bit more about what kind of person he is. I don’t hate Pearl. He is a talented coach and great hype man. I am sure he has some good characteristics and would be enjoyable to be around. I would not trust him as my investment advisor or business partner though. Too many instances of him looking out for number one and a willingness to play hard and fat with the rules.
 
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#542
#542
If Jabari wanted to try and get out of his NLI at this time, I know of a coach who appears to be more honest than Mr. Pearl.
 
#545
#545
Bruce was into some stuff while he was here. I've heard rumors of players being paid etc. I will always wonder what all happened at the BBQ. I know Josh Shelby and Jordan McRae both committed to Tennessee at that BBQ. They said so in an interview the following week when asked about attending the Football game. They didn't go to the game because Pearl was having a party for his daughter at his house.
Since if was public knowledge, I don't see why there would've been a need to lie about it. No one seems to remember this interview, but for some reason it stuck with me. We also got back in on Selby at the end of his recruitment and there were red flags all around his recruitment. It's hard to believe we would've been clean.

Bruce Pearl is great at promoting himself, his school, and whatever it is he wants to promote. Few are better. Two examples : Dane Bradshaw made the All-Century team and Stephen Pearl was playing over Jeronne Maymon and Kenny Hall. . .
You are kidding yourself if you think Pearl is clean. He knows exactly how to toe the line and to not cooperate with the NCAA. That's a lesson he learned the hard way while at UT.
 
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#546
#546
volball57 said:
Bruce was into some stuff while he was here. I've heard rumors of players being paid etc. I will always wonder what all happened at the BBQ. I know Josh Shelby and Jordan McRae both committed to Tennessee at that BBQ. They said so in an interview the following week when asked about attending the Football game. They didn't go to the game because Pearl was having a party for his daughter at his house.
Since if was public knowledge, I don't see why there would've been a need to lie about it. No one seems to remember this interview, but for some reason it stuck with me. We also got back in on Selby at the end of his recruitment and there were red flags all around his recruitment. It's hard to believe we would've been clean.

Bruce Pearl is great at promoting himself, his school, and whatever it is he wants to promote. Few are better. Two examples : Dane Bradshaw made the All-Century team and Stephen Pearl was playing over Jeronne Maymon and Kenny Hall. . .
You are kidding yourself if you think Pearl is clean. He knows exactly how to toe the line and to not cooperate with the NCAA. That's a lesson he learned the hard way while at UT.
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Selby and McRae attending that BBQ was as much a violation as Craft attending. I have a hard time believing either were there and then both escaped either being found out or punishment. That is first time I have ever heard their names mentioned as being in attendance. Not saying it's impossible, but it certainly would surprise me.
 
#548
#548
auburnnyc94 said:
Bruce Pearl has not ever even been accused of cheating while at Auburn. Not sure how people continue to read their own version of facts into this story.
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Where there's smoke, there's usually fire. Why did Bruce clamp down and not speak to administrators when all this hit? How likely is it that a very hands-on head coach knew NOTHING? I am constantly amazed at how there can be a preponderance of evidence, and people just bury their head in the sand.
 
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